


Fast Track

by zephyras13



Series: Exiles [8]
Category: Bleach
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe - Canon, Angst, Canon-Typical Violence, Discovery, Drabble Collection, F/M, Gotei 13 - Freeform, Male-Female Friendship, Present Tense, Women Being Awesome
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-03-10
Updated: 2012-03-10
Packaged: 2017-11-01 18:24:36
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,503
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/359867
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zephyras13/pseuds/zephyras13
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The charade is up and Renji is not pleased with reality.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fast Track

Another Captain's meeting is called and Renji _knows_ , without any sort of basis whatsoever, that it's about Rukia. It's sort of late, already a month has gone by since they started surveillance on her, but he knows, without any shadow of a doubt, that they've finally found something.

He closes his eyes and grits his teeth after the Hell Butterfly flutters away, trying to ignore the worried look on his vice-captain's face.

"Abarai-ku- _taichou_ ," Kira stutters, even though Renji's told him from the beginning that he didn't have to call him captain. "Are you alright?"

"Just fine," Renji grouses and pulls his captain's haori off his desk chair. "I'd better go to this meeting, can you finish up here?"

He regrets it the second he asks. After all, Kira's been doing the Third Division's paperwork longer than he has.

"No problem," Kira says, not seeming to take offense, but instead still looking worried.

"I owe you one," Renji says with a grin, in complete violation of the appropriate captain to vice-captain relationship, and hurries out of his office, tugging on his haori as he goes.

What could have possibly happened, he wonders as he rushes toward the First Division headquarters. The last thing he'd seen on the surveillance tape was Rukia's disastrous human party and the even more uncomfortable aftermath. Renji's spent most of his days afterward torn between being disgusted that Rukia is not only obviously in love with a _human_ , but one with emotional issues who doesn't even have the decency to like her back, and appalled that the Twelfth Division gossips were actually _right_ about her the whole time.

The only thing he can think of is that her human friends found out about her true identity, but he doesn't really think the Soul Society would give a fuck about that. It has to be bigger than that for Yamamoto-soutaichou to actually call a Captain's meeting, an occurrence that can go without happening for years in times of peace. But what could be bigger?

 _"Dammit,"_ Renji thinks, slipping into shunpo, as there's nothing worse than being late to one of these things.

He doesn't want Rukia to have anything to do with Urahara Kisuke, Shihouin Yoruichi, or any of the other famous exiles. Even living a lie among stupid humans would be preferable. She can turn on her roots, even fall in love with a pathetic excuse of a man and fade into a mere shadow of herself. But if it turns out there's another side to this all, Renji fears what the Soul Society might do. The idea that a group of ryoka and traitors most likely managed to defeat the largest threat the Soul Society has ever known is not a comforting one and the higher ups have all been on edge since Aizen was delivered sealed to their door.

 _"Please,_ please _, let it be something else,"_ Renji prays, but deep inside he knows that that's never even been an option.

"This had better be worth all the fuss," Yamamoto-soutaichou warns after all the captains are assembled, glaring at the pale and intimidated-looking surveillance team.

"Tr-Trust me," the shinigami with thick glasses says with only a minimal stutter in the face of the Soul Society's de facto leader, turning on the projector at the back of the room. "You're going to want to see this."

Rukia is walking quickly, still in human clothes, the camera zigzaging behind her to keep up. She appears to be in a library of some sort, full to the brim of shelves and shelves of books (what kind of human nonsense could they all be about?) and tables filled with humans hunched over computers. Students maybe?

Rukia doesn't appear to be looking for anything and walks with purpose up a flight of stairs and into a secluded corner where Renji is annoyed to find the orange haired kid seated. He's taken up the entire table with his bags and books, leaning over his notes with an even more pronounced scowl than usual.

"Having fun?" Rukia drawls as she draws closer to the table, crossing her arms over her chest and looking generally pleased with herself and the world.

The perpetually unhappy kid looks up at her and scowls some more.

"What the hell are you doing here, Rukia?" he asks, setting down his pencil. "Don't you have, I dunno, _work_ to be doing right now?"

"The pipes broke in our building," Rukia says airily, leaning over to look at the kid's notes. "The store is closed today for-ah, main-ten-ence." she says, enunciating the word carefully.

The kid rolls his eyes. "Uh huh, that's nic-hey, stop that!"

"I'm just _looking_ ," Rukia says innocently, the same way she used to convince shopkeepers that she wasn't in fact a thieving urchin.

The kid looks like he's more than his fair share of experience with Rukia's innocent look and edges his books away from her mistrustfully.

"So _why_ are you here again?" he glowers, clearly displeased at her presence.

Rukia scoffs, plopping herself down in the chair across from him. "I could have gone home, you know. But instead I've selflessly come to keep you company," she declares triumphantly. "Of all the sacrifices I make for our friendship!"

"So you were bored and decided to come all the way down here to annoy me," the kid who's name Renji can never remember says dryly. "You couldn't go home and have Kon entertain you?"

It's Rukia's turn to look unamused now, putting up her elbows on the table and raising an eyebrow. "Kon, Ichigo? _Really_?" she says, referring to the strange human cotton doll that for whatever reason they refuse to get rid of, despite it running all around their apartment and annoying all comers.

"Alright, point taken," Ichigo (Renji _knew_ his name was something weird) says, turning back to his work. "Just shut up and try not make it obvious that you're a total freak of nature."

"Fool, of the two of us you are the far more conspicuous with that ridiculous hair of yours."

"Bitch," Ichigo growls at her bad-temperedly, making Renji wonder for the millionth time why he even lives with her. "You're the one who talks like you're from the fucking Warring States Perio-"

"Excuse me," a girl holding a box in her arms says, approaching their table. "Are you a student here? Do you know where I can find books about shinigami?"

Instantly the whole atmosphere of the room changes. Captains like Soi Fon, Zaraki, and Hitsugaya are suddenly paying attention to the video. On screen, Rukia has stiffened up in her human dress and the kid looks incredibly confused.

"What the hel-" he starts and then lightening fast, _too fast_ for a human, the girl draws a knife and slashes his chest open.

For a second the kid just stares at her, blood seeping through his shirt.

"You," he snarls, starting to rise from his seat.

"Ichigo!" Rukia shouts, jumping out of her seat and rushing towards him, but the girl takes out some kind of crazy-looking _gun_ and blasts her into a tall bookshelf, causing it to teeter and fall.

The noise causes the other humans to look up, some starting to shout.

"Hahhhh," the girl sighs, putting the box down on the table in front of her and placing her hands on her hips. "Why did _you_ had to be here? I was hoping this wouldn't be too much trouble, but no such luck, huh?"

"Ruki...a," the kid starts in horror, but he seems to have trouble speaking and falls to his knees, barely missing hitting his head on the chair.

"Don't worry," the girl tells him cheerfully, twirling her finger around a shockingly pink pigtail, oblivious to the horrified humans around her. "I didn't cut you that deep. There's a sedative on the blade. Usually not my thing, knives, but this one was oh, so _pretty."_

"Who the fu...ck," the kid gasps and the girl rolls her eyes.

"Doesn't matter," she tells him matter-of-factly, reaching down to grab the collar of his jacket and haul him off the floor. "I just need to borrow you for a bit. I'll bring you right back, I pr-"

"I think _not!_ " Rukia snarls and in a flash of shunpo, she's grabbed the girl by the neck and thrown her several meters across the library, smashing her box and sending her crashing through several bookshelves and finally the wall on the other side.

She's not in gigai anymore, and Renji's surprised to see the familiar black of her shihakushou contrasting with the silver of her blade. There's also a jagged scar that spans across her right cheek nearly to her ear that didn't translate over into her gigai.

The humans have started panicking in earnest now, and a few of them almost run into the camera as they flee the building.

"Take care of him!" Rukia shouts to the gikon in her gigai, which is looking worriedly over the kid's prone form.

"Hai, Rukia-sama!" it declares and Rukia turns her full attention back to the pig-tailed girl.

"Who are you!" Rukia demands, as the girl pushes herself up off the floor.

"Mou, so annoying!" the girl scowls, brushing off her indecently short skirt. "You've ruined my cutest outfit _and_ my dollhouse!"

She dodges Rukia's sword and jumps down to the ground floor from the railing in a feat that no ordinary human could manage.

"You really weren't supposed to be here, you know," the girl says irritatedly, fixing her strange hat and frowning up at Rukia. "But even though you've ruined everything I've don't have time to fight you. Until next time!"

She makes for the exit and Rukia leaps after her in pursuit.

"Oh, no you don't!" Rukia shouts, dodging around the hoard of oblivious humans to follow the girl.

She makes it to the outside and after a brief turnaround locates the girl on the top of a nearby building. She hurtles after her and Renji takes a moment to stare in awe at her speed. She's so fast the camera has a hard time catching up with her.

"Human, huh?" Rukia is saying when the camera finally reaches the two of them again, as they circle around each other warily.

"Hardly," the girl scoffs arrogantly, though she's bleeding from the lip now. "Not an ordinary human by far, as you can see. So you can stop holding back, shinigami."

"Fool," Rukia replies testily, tightening her grip on her sword. "I have not been a shinigami for a long time. What do you what with Ichigo?"

"You sure about that?" the girl smirks, ignoring Rukia's question. "Most exiles ditch the whole kimono thing and actually wear normal-people clothes, don't they? And you're still holding back on me because I'm a human, even though I left your boyfriend bleeding on the floor back there. You sure seem like the average self-righteous, meddling shinigami to me."

At either the reference to her past as a shinigami or what the girl did to Rukia's friend, Rukia freezes, real anger flooding onto her face. Renji has not seen that expression on her face for a long, long time and an actual ache starts in his chest as he realizes just how far apart they've become.

"Dance," she says coldly, her short hair flaring up away from her face. "Sode no Shirayuki."

She holds out her blade in front of her, turning it counterclockwise, and white flares onto her blade, a ribbon sprouting out from the pommel. Renji realizes that this is the first time he's ever seen Rukia's shikai. He can almost feel the burst of cold air through the screen, though it could hardly be as cold as the look on Rukia's face.

"Now we're talking," the other girl says triumphantly, raising her gun. "I always hate it when you people don'-"

But Renji doesn't get to find out what the other girl hates about shinigami, because apparently Rukia is done talking.

"Next dance," she calls out, and points of white energy spring up in front of her blade. "Hakuren!"

A tidal wave of white envelopes the pig-tailed girl and she is pinned to the roof under a thick layer of ice.

"Shit!" she swears, trying to struggle free, but her head is the only part of her body that is left untouched.

"Now," Rukia says, walking forward onto the ice, touching the point of her blade to her enemy's jugular. "You are going to tell me exactly what you want with my friend or make no mistake, I _will_ kill you."

There is absolutely no emotion on her face now, and coupled with her shorter hair and nasty-looking scar, Renji realizes with a jolt that he barely recognizes her.

 _"What_ happened _, Rukia?"_ he thinks, suddenly remembering the cheerful girl who had climbed the tallest trees in the 78th and thrown down fruit to anyone who wanted some. This cold woman isn't the Rukia he remembers and it _hurts._

On the screen, the girl lets out a scornful laugh, despite her vulnerable position, hair spread out all over the ice. "What? So _now_ you're suddenly ready to kill me? Don't make me laugh."

Rukia's eyes narrow and she stomps down hard on the ice, causing the girl to cry out in pain.

" _Now_ ," Rukia says dangerously, drawing blood with her zanpakutou that runs down the girl's neck onto the ice. "I am only going to ask one more time. What. Do. You. Want. With. Ichigo."

"You really don't have to be so serious," the girl replies, looking more bored than afraid. "I wasn't going to _kill_ him. I just needed to borrow him, that's all."

"Not good enough," Rukia says furiously and raises her blade. But before she can make another cut, the ice explodes, several shards hitting the camera. The blast obscures the lens for a few seconds, but when the dust clears, the pig-tailed girl has freed herself from the ice, brandishing her strange gun with a cocky grin on her face.

"How many times have I told you now?" she says, sounding pleased with herself as Rukia hunches over, coughing out ice particles several meters away from the blast. "I'm not a normal human. If you treat me like one you're going to lose..." Her grin widens and she draws her knife again, lunging forward at Rukia's unprotected form. "...shinigami!"

She gets about two steps from Rukia, before Rukia's hand shoots out to stay her arm.

"And I told you," Rukia says, still hunched over, her voice gone strange and distorted. Her grip tightens on the other girl's arm and she cries out as it breaks. "I am not a shinigami."

She looks up then, a white, evil looking mask on her face.

"What the hell is that?" Hitsugaya-taichou interjects.

"It can't be-" Ukitake-taichou says with wide eyes.

"Quiet!" Yamamato-taichou orders, eyeing the screen intently.

The pig-tailed girl seems to have the same reaction as Hitsugaya-taichou and Renji himself.

"You...that mask..." she stutters, looking for the first time completely thrown. "Is that a Hollow's mask?"

"Aaa," Rukia replies, voice more and more disturbing with every syllable passing through the sharp teeth of her mask.

So fast that the camera does not catch it, Rukia slams her head into the ground with one hand. The concrete of the roof splits and the pig-tailed girl gazes up at her in blank shock as blood pools from her head.

"You-" she hisses, trying to shoot Rukia at point blank range with her gun. Rukia kicks it out of her grasp, but the shot hits the side of her face, shattering the left side of her mask.

"Do not bother," Rukia says coldly as a couple pieces of her mask fall to the ground, revealing the black and yellow of a Hollow's eye. "It is over."

"Shit," the girl says hoarsely, twitching weakly. "You got blood all over my outfit, you _bitch_."

"I generally do not hurt humans, you know," Rukia says, looking down at her in contempt. She sheathes her sword. "But know that I do not forgive any harm that comes to my friends."

She turns around and looks directly at the camera, and Renji feels his heart jump into his throat.

"That goes to you as well," she continues, glaring at all of them from the screen with her Hollow eye. "I know you will be tempted to meddle in these affairs, because that is what you do. But let me give you a little piece of advice: don't. Because if you touch Kurosaki Ichigo, or any of my other friends _I_ will kill you."

Renji stares with wide eyes at the inhuman fury in her Hollowified face and thinks, oh, no, Rukia, you idiot, what have you done?

"Hadou no 54!" she cries out then, raising her right arm towards the camera. "Haien!"

The screen goes blank and then fills with static.

For a second the room is filled with complete silence and Renji finds himself looking toward Kuchiki-taichou again.

To his surprise, his old captain's eyes are wide with shock and it's because of this more than anything that Renji realizes just how bad the situation has become.

"Well, then," Yamamoto-soutaichou says harshly, the first to recover. "I think it's fair to say Kuchiki Rukia's connection with the exile Urahara Kisuke has been confirmed."

 _"Fuck,"_ Renji thinks, and grits his teeth hard. _"You complete idiot. Fuck!"_

"How was she able to sense the camera?" Hisagi-senpai asks carefully, looking surprised at his own daring. "I thought it was supposed to be screened or something."

"Hmph, what exactly are you implying there?" Kurotsuchi-taichou asks testily.

"Er..." Hisagi-senpai says, looking shocked. "I was just-"

"It's a valid question," Kyouraku-taichou cuts in, saving the new Ninth Division Captain from Kurotsuchi-taichou's wrath.

Kurotsuchi-taichou scowls and then turns to glare at his underlings. "Well?" he says expectantly.

"Ah, it-it's possible Kuchiki's ice attack da-damaged the camera," a surveillance team member with pigtails like the girl in the video stutters, seeming a lot more intimidated by her own captain than Yamamoto-soutaichou. "The reiatsu-shielding mechanism most likely f-failed."

"So it would be possible to send another camera then," Komamura-taichou observes.

"What is that mas-" Rangiku-san starts, but Kuchiki-taichou cuts her off.

"Who is the boy?" he asks, completely emotionlessly, but the entire room turns to look at him awkwardly.

"I-uh," the green haired girl says nervously, clutching her clipboard tightly in front of her as if to shield herself from scrutiny. "He lives with Kuchiki. A lover, or just a friend? It's...unclear."

"Is there any reason you can make out as to why he was attacked?"

Renji hadn't even thought of that and by the looks on the faces of the other captains, they'd all been too preoccupied with Rukia's Hollow... _whatever_ to wonder why the encounter even happened in the first place.

"She didn't seem too interested in Kuchiki," Soi Fon-taichou says with thinly veiled anger and Renji wonders if the rumours are true and she really has a grudge against Urahara Kisuke. "She was after the kid the whole time."

"H-He's nothing though," glasses boy says, actually flinching when Zaraki-taichou gives a loud yawn signifying his utter disinterest in the entire affair. "Just a normal human."

"No spiritual power?" Renji speaks up for the first time, throat surprisingly dry, even though he knows the answer. He just can't think of why anyone would be interested in the perpetually morose kid either.

"It doesn't show up on our readings, so even if he had any it would be negligible," the final member of the surveillance team, a boy that looks about five, says reedily. "Speaking of, Kuchiki...she was an unseated member of the Thirteenth before she deserted, right? Well, the second she put on that mask, her reiatsu spikes into captain-class."

Unohana-taichou's eyebrows disappear into her hairline and Yamamoto-soutaichou's scowl deepens. Renji thinks he's going to be sick.

"That would be Urahara's experiments alright," Kyouraku-taichou says, serious for the first time Renji's ever seen him and it sends shivers down his spine.

"What is that mask, though?" Hitsugaya-taichou asks impatiently, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Who cares?" Zaraki-taichou groans, running a hand through his hair and rolling his eyes. "Just track down the crazy bitch and kill her. Problem solved."

"What is that supposed to m-" Renji starts furiously before he can think of what he's saying.

"Enough," Yamamoto-soutaichou intervenes before Renji can embarrass himself even more. "Zaraki, Abarai, contain yourselves!"

Renji shuts his mouth, more terrified of the fact that the Commander of the Soul Society _knows_ _his name_ than anything else.

Yamamoto-soutaichou lets out a heavy sigh and slumps in his seat. The entire room stares at this uncharacteristic behavior and their leader exchanges cryptic glances with Kyouraku-taichou, Ukitake-taichou, and Unohana-taichou.

"More than a hundred years ago," Yamamoto-soutaichou says finally, voice grating over Renji's ears even more than usual. "...when Urahara Kisuke was still captain of the Twelfth Division..."

**Author's Note:**

> Hooray for actual plot! Writing this part was a bit annoying because Renji didn't know Riruka's name, so I hope it didn't read too awkwardly. Please review!


End file.
